Here's the brief exhibit of our favorite projects from the blogs this past week. There's neither rhyme nor reason to them, we just like them all and couldn't fit them into categories, so bare with our aesthetic schizophrenia and enjoy.

Yayoi Kusama: pop up store for Luis Vuitton

An exceptionally amazing pre-fab pavilion-like structure for retail. There have been many of projects in this vein over the past few years, but this one, I think, takes the cake (partly because it looks like it's made of frosting, but is actually metal). Check out more photos and the drawings (which are ok) on Architizer.

IAAC: Endesa Pavilion

A very nice beach pavilion from the students at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalunia. This pavilion does a whole bunch of performative stuff the Institute is very proud of (including the obvious solar power situation) but it is also super interesting to look at and, I imagine, inhabit. Read more about it and see more photos on archello.

Mehrdad Hadighi + Tsz Yan Ng: Lafayette 148

I found this building (built in 2008) both on Domus and Co.DESIGN because of an article written for the former about the performative aspects of this building's ornamental skin. Both sites lauded it as being more than a box with pretty wrapping, arguing for the design's origins in 'local tradition' and its truly efficient affects on the building's environmental systems. Read the articles, decide for yourself. It is really interesting and has great interior and far-away affects, but the construction details look a little sloppy, in my opinion. Nevertheless, it's performative ornament at work...

Alan Friedman: back yard solar photography

Changing it up a bit, this guy struck it big in the blogosphere this week after his really amazing photos went pseudo-viral (we found them both on design blogs, photo blogs, and a science blog, so go figure). But it's not that surprising: he takes photos, of the sun, from his backyard, with a telescope and a webcam. (WHAA?!?!?!?!) Then he scans for the best frames, layers them together, and adds tone to them. The result is muted, sometimes eery, detailed, and really calm looking images of the sun. Check them out on Colossal, his website, and also this video about his process, if your interested.

Tweetping

If you haven't seen this yet you're missing out. It is a global, real time visualization of Twitter, complete with quick diagnostics by continent. I turn it on while I'm on the phone just so I can watch it. SO cool. Read about it on information aeshetics and Co.DESIGN, and try it here.

Kustaa Saksi + Gert Wingardh: Stockholm furniture fair installation

I had two initial reactions to this, since I found it on two blogs, represented by two different pictures. The photos of the exterior lit me up I was so taken with them. The photos of the interior put me off, but mostly because I didn't understand them. This is a space, carved out of a volume, which is itself made by hanging pages in columns. Cool. The ceiling of the interior space is an odd series of overlaid patterns printed on the pages that reminds me of several decks of cards spilled on top of each other. Nevertheless, it's super cool. Check out more pics here.

Luke Jerram: Aeolus

Really really taken with this one. It's a musical/visual sculpture installation, inspired by "singing wells" in Iran (which are, in turn, like when you blow across the top of a beer bottle). The tubes magnify the sound of strings vibrating in the wind, so the sculpture serves as a kind of audio index of air movements around you. Very interesting. Check out this video, which is poorer quality than the official project videos but has better audio of the sculpture in action; more photos and info on architizer.

James McNabb: mini cities

This sculptor has made some really awesome pieces that are basically micro cities made of wood, but in other forms. Mostly I just really like them and think they're interesting and nice to look at. Again, check out architizer for a few more photos and a brief blurb from McNabb.

Walter Tschinkel: Aluminum cast ant colonies

Yet another science project turned design blog post, this project is amazing!! It both catches my whimsy (yea, I have whimsy) and the nerdy science part of me (which is small) and is also really great to look at. This entomologist pours molten aluminum into abandoned ant colonies, and then digs it up, in order to better understand the architecture or diagram of how the colony works. IT IS FASCINATING. Then he takes photos, throws on a scale, and calls them by the species name of the ant that made them. This last detail is interesting because different ants construct colonies that are topologically different, with varying depths, densities, and dispersion of spaces. So great. Check out the project bio on Core77 for more photos (though, admittedly, I originally found it on I Fucking Love Science's Facebook page).

Frank Gehry: fish lamps

If MAINPrjkt, like The Daily Show, had a "Moment of Zen" at the end of each Prjkt Dump, this would be todays: Frank Gehry is making lamps that look like fish. (Restrain your laughter, your officemates are staring.) The 80-something starchitect is embracing his love of the fish form (of which he's done many sculptures and which, he says, inspired the forms of Bilbao) and making smallish lamps out of them, on display in LA and Paris. Some of the photos are actually really interesting; as the array of scales turns around the form, more light can be seen and the form kind of looks like it turns into plasma... but mostly they're just nice looking fish lamps. Anyway, that's that. Check out a whole bunch more photos on Dezeen.